Tag: film

The entire world may be a stage, but that doesn’t mean anyone is recording. Despite your dramatic friend’s best efforts, your life is not a movie or television show. That isn’t to say that it will never be, but the odds of you becoming the next Raymond that everybody loves are not in your favor. (After all, where are you going to find a good studio audience to laugh at all of your jokes?) Not only that, but your life is nothing like the lives of people in film.

There are so many tiny everyday situations and items that Hollywood thinks is reality, but this definitely doesn’t happen in real life:

While some of us may still dream of being in a television show or movie, there’s no denying that not living in a fictitious world is probably for the best. If your life was actually a film, you’d have to sit through the credits.

If you’re a movie aficionado, you probably thrive on finding mistakes in plots, scenery, and all-around logic. It’s probably the only thing film buffs like more than the movies themselves. The tiny mistakes that go unnoticed to everyone, even the director, until it’s too late are like little golden nuggets when you uncover them.

Check out a few of our favorite film-editing flubs below…did you catch them when you originally watched the movies?

In “Jurassic Park,” when this raptor opens the door, take a close look at its butt. No, not like that, you weirdo. You can see someone place a hand on the tail to make sure the dino doesn’t tip over.

“Gladiator” is apparently full of mistakes. One example that you can see here when the horse moves his face is a man in jeans trying to get out of the shot before being noticed.

Can’t get enough? Here are 20 movie mistakes that are so rewarding once you spot them.

Now that you realize how many mistakes are in movies, you’ll probably keep your eyes peeled for them going forward. It might change how you watch films altogether, but if you catch a mistake, it’s so worth it when it comes to these mega-budget movies.

Even though you might not be able to picture a frozen hellscape in which Harry Potter is not played by Daniel Radcliffe, the fact of that matter is that someone else almost did.

In fact, the same is true for plenty of popular movie and TV characters. What would “Pretty Woman” be without Julia Roberts? Who else could even legally play Han Solo other than Harrison Ford? These are the hard-hitting questions, friends, and I’m here to give you some answers.

Here are 25 beloved characters that were almost played by other actors.

1. Britney Spears was considered for the role of Allie Calhoun in “The Notebook.” Rachel McAdams got the gig instead.

6. Human-shaped dumpster fire Nicolas Cage almost snagged the role of John Bender in “The Breakfast Club.” Fortunately for all of humankind, he didn’t.

7. Instead of the late, great Alan Rickman, casting directors for the Harry Potter franchise almost went with Tim Roth (who for all I know could be a great actor but is also not Alan Rickman) to play Severus Snape.

16. We all loved watching Maya Rudolph play Lillian in “Bridesmaids,” but I’m sure Mindy Kaling would’ve been just as funny if she’d been given the role after auditioning.

17. Mars was apparently in retrograde when Al Pacino was considered to play Han Solo. Fortunately, Harrison Ford rolled up and was all like, “Nah, man,” probably.

18. If you need me, I’ll be tracking down the person who almost cast Rob Lowe as Dr. McDreamy, otherwise known as Derek Shepherd, otherwise known as a character that should never be played by Rob Lowe under any circumstances, in “Grey’s Anatomy.”

19. Hugh Grant almost played Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” but lost out to Kenneth Branagh in the end.

20. An actor by the name of Thomas Jane fought in what I can only imagine was a slime-ball battle in his own mucus with fellow human slug Jon Hamm for the role of Don Draper in “Mad Men.” Ultimately, Hamm won.

Getty Images

21. In what would’ve been the cutest swap in history, Harry Potter’s gigantic friend Hagrid was almost played the late Robin Williams instead of Robbie Coltrane, who also happens to be awesome.

Liam Neeson in A Walk Among the Tombstones. Atsushi Nishijima/Universal Pictures

The new Liam Neeson movie A Walk Among the Tombstones, which opens in theaters nationwide on Sept. 19, spools out its opening credits over a montage of shots of a beautiful woman. They’re all close-ups, and coyly eroticized, providing glimpses of pale skin and blonde hair. It looks like it could be a sex scene, right until the final image of her face, where we see she has tape over her mouth and there’s a tear rolling down her cheek.

It’s a neat encapsulation of what’s to come — women die horribly in order for men to avenge them soulfully in A Walk Among the Tombstones. Not exactly a new pattern in movies or on TV, but there’s something about starkness of that divide in this new film, which is written and directed by Scott Frank (The Lookout), that’s particularly striking. And, frankly, a little gross.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by crime-writing legend Lawrence Block, A Walk Among the Tombstones is a detective story of the old school, one of a series about an alcoholic ex-cop turned unlicensed private investigator named Matthew Scudder. It’s set in a gritty, dark, and resolutely drab 1999 New York, in which characters talk about Y2K and cell phones aren’t in regular use. It’s a world that’s unrepentantly masculine, which is fine, but it also uses women, or rather their deaths, as dramatic fuel, which really isn’t. The film may be a semi-period piece, but in 2014, you should have to choose — either write women as actual characters or leave them out. To use them solely as photogenic dead or soon-to-be dead bodies is to render them less than human.

Your tipping point on depictions of violence against women may vary. Here’s mine: Women really do get attacked, beaten, mutilated, permanently injured, raped, and killed, and removing representations of those facts from on screen won’t change that. But when your story includes women only so much as their grisly deaths make the men in their lives mad or sad, well, then you’re just turning them into meat — literally, in this case, as Scudder is hired to track down a pair of sadistic killers (David Harbour and Adam David Thompson) who kidnap women, extract ransom money from their loved ones, then leave their victims’ dismembered bodies in plastic-wrapped piles. The men they target are all involved in the higher echelons of the drug trade, including Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens), the Brooklyn dealer who first requests Scudder’s help to catch the guys who took and murdered his wife.

The women in A Walk Among the Tombstones, as much as they exist, are shown either in angelic remove — a bright remembered smile, a set of portraits on the wall, a particularly disturbing slow-motion walk — or screaming hopelessly for their lives. This is a movie about men, from the shrewd, hard-bitten, but good-hearted Scudder to the distraught Kenny and his addict brother Howie (Eric Nelsen), from the sadistic roomies Ray (Harbour) and Albert (Thompson) to the precocious homeless kid named TJ (Astro) to whom Scudder reluctantly warms.

They may be a rough-and-tumble crowd, but they’re all depicted as fully formed people; even the creepy graveyard worker (Ã“lafur Darri Ã“lafsson) Scudder runs across during his investigation has a personality, a history, a life that’s transmitted in his few scenes. There’s no requirement that every story have strong female characters, or characters of color, or any other typically underrepresented group, though there’s a pressing need to see more of them on screen. But when your women exist only as emotional leverage for the men, well, you’re making them as disposable as your villains.

Adam David Thompson and David Harbour. Atsushi Nishijima/Universal Pictures

There are things to recommend in A Walk Among the Tombstones. Neeson is enjoyable, as always, in a quieter and more pensive tough-guy mode than the Taken films — his recent, golden run of weathered leading roles continues. It travels to corners of New York that don’t often make it to screen — rooftop pigeon coops and believably crummy Hell’s Kitchen apartments, empty Red Hook streets and Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

But those elements just couldn’t, for me, balance out the lingering unpleasantness of how A Walk Among the Tombstones was telling its story. It’s hollow pulp trying to pass off gloom as thematic weight, a story that creates monsters and takes pleasure in letting them run loose so that it can end on a note bemoaning what a terrible world it is.

Most people who have seen “The Exorcist” agree that it’s one of the scariest movies of all time.

Even for the most jaded horror lovers out there, the film does a great job of leaving you feeling very uncomfortable and afraid. Everything about it is creepy, including the behind-the-scenes footage that didn’t make its way into the final cut.

This compilation of outtakes and superimposition tests on the movie set is silent, but that definitely doesn’t make it any less unsettling to watch.

Right after the three-minute mark is when it gets especially disturbing for me.

The Sundance Film Festival can be magical, or it can be a lot of standing around outside in the cold. I’ve had both experiences over the last 10 years of attending the festival as a local. In preparation for this year’s film festival, I talked to a few friends and compiled the tips we’ve learned through much trial and error below. (If you have some words of wisdom to add, please add them in the comments below.)

Jim Urquhart / Reuters

Jim Urquhart / Reuters

Actress Rachel McAdams attends the premiere of the film A Most Wanted Man at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Jan. 19, 2014; people wait in line to get into a Sundance Film Festival screening at the Eccles Theatre in Park City.

How to deal with the cold:

The short answer: layer.

The longer answer: With high temperatures during the festival in the 30s (though it may go up to the low 50s next week) and lows in the teens, it’s definitely going to be cold. The good news is that Utah is very dry, so 30 degrees in Park City isn’t nearly as bad as 30 degrees in, say, New York City.

But in any case, consider the environments you’ll be in: outdoors, on buses, in semi-heated tents, and sitting in movie theaters. You need outfits that can handle all of those situations. One monster jacket is not the answer!

Instead, try this:

Coat: Wear a good, warm coat, but one that’s not too big. Remember, you’ll probably have to hold it on your lap for two hours during film screenings.

Under the coat: Sweaters, hoodies, scarves. In California, scarves are for fashion. In Park City, they’re for covering your face (and also for fashion). I usually found that three or four layers of diminishing thickness were enough to stand around for a half an hour in the waitlist line.

Head: Don’t forget a hat or earmuffs. Cold ears are not fun.

Shoes: Lightweight canvas and rubber shoes are not great for walking a lot in the snow. They get wet, and then your feet are cold for the rest of the day.

Still cold? If you need a quick way to warm up at Sundance, hop on one of the free buses circling the city (more on the buses below).

How to see movies when you don’t have tickets:

If you want to see a film but don’t have tickets, the waitlist is definitely worth trying. In fact, the waitlist is a classic part of Sundance and worth doing just for the experience.

Using the waitlist in past involved showing up very early and getting numbered slips of paper. It rewarded those who worked the hardest to see films. Last year, however, the festival debuted an electronic system that was buggy, frustratingly required electronic registration, and rewarded whoever had the fastest internet connection. Frankly, it wasn’t great.

Still, using the waitlist means hanging out for a while with a bunch of independent film buffs who braved the cold to see a movie. So, potential friends. I’ve also attended plenty of Sundance films for free because someone with extra tickets happened to be hanging out around the waitlist line.

Using the waitlist now involves getting a number electronically on your phone, then arriving 30 minutes before show time and lining up in numerical order. Then just before the film starts, the empty seats are sold for $15 (cash only) to people in line. For full instructions, click here or watch this instructional video:

Where to eat and drink:

Here’s the thing with eating at Sundance: Park City has a tourist economy, which doesn’t necessarily lead to a lot of high-quality, good-value restaurants. In my experience, food in Park City tends to vary between generic mid-price options and what I think of as “Faux Rustic Beverly Hills.” So as a general rule, try to get as far away from the tourist crowds as possible.

That said, after talking with a few friends, this is the list we came up with for Park City:

â€¢ El Chubasco: Mexican food away from the crush of the festival crowds.

â€¢ Wasatch Brewpub: Wasatch Brewery operates two brewpubs, including one on Main Street in Park City. There’s a full menu, plus local beers with Utah-themed names like Polygamy Porter and Provo Girl.

â€¢ Java Cow: A coffee shop on Main Street that opens before the first film screenings and festival events in the mornings.

â€¢ Chimayo: This place isn’t cheap, but it’s well-regarded, creative, and located right on Main Street.

And here are a few places to eat in Salt Lake City:

â€¢ Eva: A cozy, small plates restaurant just a few blocks from several Sundance venues. I recommend asking to be seated in the back section of the restaurant. Also try Eva’s Bakery, just up the street, which is a French-style bakery and delicious.

â€¢ Copper Onion: A perennial contender for the best restaurant in Salt Lake City, the Copper Onion is both a local favorite and immediately adjacent to the Broadway Theater, Salt Lake City’s biggest Sundance venue.

â€¢ Juniors: A tiny little bar in Salt Lake City frequented by local newspaper reporters, among others.

Where to pee:

UPDATE: Readers have alerted us that some of the restrooms that were available in the past may no longer be accessible. However, Allison Butz of the Historic Park City Alliance told BuzzFeed News there will be four public restrooms available during this year’s festival. They are located at the Old Town Transit Center, next door to the Park City Museum at 528 Main Street, at Miners Park on Main Street across from the post office, and in the parking lot of the Wasatch Brewpub.

How to stay healthy:

Park City sits about 7,000 feet above sea level and it’s often bone dry. If you’re coming from a coastal city, give yourself time to adjust by going easy on the alcohol for the first day or two and drinking plenty of water. Continue drinking more water than usual throughout the festival.

During the festival, the stops are clearly marked and are located at every Park City venue. Bus drivers are generally kind and helpful. Sundance has information about the buses on its website, as does Park City, though it may be easiest to just to show up and give it a try. Keep in mind that Park City is very small and you don’t need to be a public transit pro to master the bus system.

Leaving Park City without a car is a little bit trickier, but doable. There’s more info on how to do that at the end of this post.

How to park for free and without stress in Park City:

If you are driving to Park City — or from your hotel into the heart of town — use the Monitor Drive parking lot.

Located at 2300 Monitor Drive, this park and ride is actually a Mormon church parking lot — so it’s closed on Sundays. But the rest of the time, it’s free and typically has spaces. It’s not within walking distance of most venues, but the free bus picks up right by the entrance (there will be signs). The alternative is fighting traffic over narrow, frozen streets to get to a comparatively expensive lot. Trust me, park on Monitor Drive.

Where to see Banksy art in Park City:

Banksy came through Park City in 2010 when Exit Through the Gift Shop was screening and left behind at least four pieces of street art. Not all of them survived, but the best-known piece is protected under glass on the side of Java Cow, at 402 Main Street.

Another surviving Bansky, depicting a kneeling angel boy, is located on the side of a parking garage at 537 Main Street. That piece was damaged in late 2013, but “painstakingly restored” last year.

How to avoid crowds:

Sundance is absolutely packed, but only at certain times and on certain days. If you’ve had enough of the crowds, try these tips:

1. Get up early. Even during the first weekend of the festival, Park City is vastly quieter in the mornings than it is at night.

2. Stay through the second weekend. The biggest celebrities, parties, and crowds converge during the first weekend of Sundance. That bustle can be fun, but for a more laid-back experience stick around for the last few days. The festival has an entirely different atmosphere toward the end, and events and screening are much, much easier to get into.

3. Be friendly. Almost everyone you see “working” at Sundance is actually a volunteer. They are regular people with whom niceness opens doors. Literally. Like, doors to warmer places where there isn’t a big crowd.

How to experience Sundance like a local:

When I asked my Utah friends how to have the best Sundance experience, they almost uniformly said the same thing: Get out of Park City. The consensus is that Park City is crowded, expensive, and generally the least Utah-like place in Utah.

To get out of Park City without a car, take the 902 bus. The bus picks up at the Old Town Transit Center, at 558 Swede Alley, near Main Street. It drops off a little more than an hour later at 200 South and Main Street in Salt Lake City, which is within walking distance of several Sundance venues. Or take the bus to its final stop at the Salt Lake Central Station, where trains depart regularly for Ogden and Provo.

Note that this bus is not free and, because it’s designed for commuters, only runs in the morning and late afternoon. Check the schedule here. If you run into trouble, ask the driver for help, or try tweeting the Utah Transit Authority’s generally responsive and helpful Twitter profile.

Getting out of Park City definitely requires some effort, but the reward is a more low-key and authentic Utah experience.

Gone are the days when you could take your family to the movies — complete with popcorn and soda — without it costing as much as your mortgage payment. It’s insane how much we have to spend to enjoy blockbusters.

So it shouldn’t surprise you that movies are no longer played from massive reels of film. Instead, our favorite films arrive in indestructible boxes.

The hard drives are just as secure as the boxes that carry them. They can only be accessed with a special key, and information cannot be copied from one hard drive to the next.

These drives only contain the movie and any associated trailers.

When loaded up, the movie takes about an hour to work its way from the drive to the server. But when it comes to seeing blockbusters on the silver screen, I don’t think any of us mind the wait (even if it does cost next month’s rent to see them)!

As a huge fan of documentaries, I have found a recurring theme amongst all of the films I’ve watched. That theme is that they are all horrendously depressing. Most documentaries aim to tackle serious issues and with that comes a lot of weight.

Sometimes, I’d like to leave a documentary feeling good. I want to feel like something was accomplished and I can go about my day without crying. These are the best documentaries that will lift your spirits and keep your chin up.

3.) Man On Wire

This thrilling documentary follows Phillippe Petit as he goes on to accomplish his daring tight rope walk between the Twin Towers. This is an awe-inspiring tale of a man who never gave up on his dream to pull off an incredible stunt.

4.) I Am

Tom Shadyac suffered a near death mountain biking accident and had an epiphany, and this documentary is that vision. It aims to answer the big questions like, why is the world the way it is and is there anything we can do anything to better it?

5.) Happy

Happy tries to find out what makes people in general happy. Many studies have been conducted about depression and anger, but this flips that all on its head when it tries to discover the meaning and cause of true happiness.

6.) The Century Of The Self

The Century Of The Self shows us how classic philosophers have influenced capitalism, politics, and governments and how we can learn from them so that we aren’t taken advantage of. It aims to educate us about the pitfalls of marketing and advertising and how to become less of a sheep.

8.) Searching For Sugar Man

This documentary is about a failed rock star in the US but was massively successful in South America inexplicably. It follows his fans as they travel to the States to try to find him and what happened to him.

Do you have a couple of hours to kill? I hope you do. Check out these great documentaries and feel better about life. Share this post with your fellow documentary lovers and plan a happy documentary party!